CSVN will organise their 51th programmers tournament this April! Saturday 29th and sunday the 30th. Two days of great fun; finally meet the guys and girls you've been playing against at HGM's server or been chatting with at talkchess.com!

Like every year there's also a section where people will play with chess computers, e.g. the boards with pieces on it that you can buy in a shop. Some of them have been extended with more ram, others have been restored after years in a moist attic.

A speciality this time is that we may (when there are enough participants) organise a draughts tournament as well! This is a great opportunity to exchange ideas!

If you would like to join, send an e-mail to Jan Krabbenbos at jan.krabbenbos@gmail.com please no later than April 17th.

Rules for participating in the 51st Programmers Tournament [ This is a translation of the Dutch rules. Whenever there is a perceived discrepancy, the original Dutch rules shall apply. ]

- The programmer, being someone who has programmed at least a substantial part of the program, must register as a participant. Additionally other team members may be enrolled, for example the book author and/or tester. - Any other programmer from whom a contribution is present in the program must be mentioned in the registration together with the nature of their contribution. The use of such contributions must (obviously) be legitimate. - The tournament organization shall refuse the participation of programs that in their opinion are too closely related to other programs. - As part of the registration process the programmer shall subject his program to a similarity test and submit the results. Failing this the entry shall not be accepted. The organization provides instructions on how this test must be executed, as well as example software for UCI and Winboard engines that could be used for this purpose. - During the tournament the arbiter may request a supervised rerun of part of the similarity test. - In case the tournament organization has reason to doubt the accuracy of the registration the participating programmer shall give the arbiter during the tournament access to and explanation of the program, as well as the computer system and development system. - Legal use of endgame databases and opening books is allowed but must be declared during registration.

There is no registration fee for members of the CSVN. The registration fee for non-members is €20. A minimum of 8 programs is necessary to start the tournament!

Your registration must include the following information:

- Name of the program(*) - Name of the participating programmer and team members(*) - Names of all authors of source code of the program and the nature of their contributions(*) - The origin of any used endgame databases and opening books(*) - The on-site presence of team members during the tournament. The organization encourages the participating programmer to be present during the tournament - Correspondence address, email address and phone number of the participating programmer - The results (moves) of the similarity test(**). These may be submitted up to 24 hours before the start of the first round - Indication of playing strength - Type of computer that plays the games (processor, speed, memory, number of cores used(*))

(*) This information will be used in the tournament reporting. (**) The moves will be treated confidentially. The degree of similarity with other participating programs will be reported. The similarity can be found on the website including manual and supporting software. http://www.csvn.nl/index.php/download/gelijkenistest